Natives For Your Neighborhood
Conservation of rare plants, animals, and ecosystems

General Landscape Uses: Specimen or shade tree.

Availability: Commonly available at native plant nurseries in northeast and central Florida.

Description: Small deciduous tree 45 feet tall with dark gray, furrowed, and blocky bark. Leaves 3-12 inches long with 3-7 deeply cut lobes with bristle tips and leaf surfaces vertical to the ground. Leaves turn dark red in the fall.

Dimensions: Typically 45 feet in height, can be as broad as tall. Up to 65 feet in height in central Florida.

Growth Rate: Fast.

Range: Southern United States south to Charlotte, Highlands, and Martin counties. A population is also present in Collier county. For a digitized image of Elbert Little's Florida range map, visit the Exploring Florida website.

 Map of select IRC data from peninsular Florida.

 Map of suggested ZIP codes from South Florida north to southern Brevard, Osceola, Polk, and Pasco counties.

Habitats: Sandhills.

Soils: Moist to dry, well-drained sandy or limestone soils, without humus.

Nutritional Requirements: Low; it grows in nutrient poor soils.

Salt Water Tolerance: Low; does not tolerate long-term flooding by salt or brackish water.

Salt Wind Tolerance: Moderate; grows near salt water, but is protected from direct salt spray by other vegetation.

Drought Tolerance: High; does not require any supplemental water once established.

Light Requirements: Full sun.

Flower Characteristics: Conspicuous catkins 3-4 inches long.

Flowering Season: Spring.

Fruit: Acorn 1 inch long.

Wildlife and Ecology: Provides significant food and cover for wildlife. Larval host plant for Horace's dusky wing (Erynnis horactius), red-banded hairstreak (Calycopis cecrops) and white-M hairstreak (Parrhasius m-album) butterflies. The acorns are utilized by squirrels.

Horticultural Notes: Can be grown from seed.

References: Huegel (2010), Nelson (2003), Schaefe

Comments: We have been adding data for this species for central and northern Florida and welcome any feedback or review. If you would like to contribute information or images, please contact George Gann via the IRC staff page.